Accountability Office Finds Itself Accused (scientific fraud cover-up)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Accountability Office Finds Itself Accused
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: April 2, 2006

A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.

The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his "great care" and "tremendous skill and patience."

Mr. Ghoshroy now says his agency ignored evidence that the two main contractors had doctored data, skewed test results and made false statements in a 2002 report that credited the contractors with revealing the warhead's failings to the government.

The agency strongly denied his accusations, insisting that its antimissile report was impartial and that it was right to exonerate the contractors of a coverup....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/washington/02missile.html?hp&ex=1143954000&en=dc40dbf934a6530c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. The fraud perpetrated on the public about this missile defense

is second only to that of the totality of Iraq war.

[wordpix2]

25. LOL, here's something Cheneyfudd proposed: the "shotgun approach"

snip: Meanwhile, the military has quietly begun looking for a better interception method. One alternative under study is a shotgun approach that would try to destroy all enemy targets in space, whether warheads or decoys.

[lovuian]

2. Paid all that money to be open to nuclear attack!!!

Bush has used the Americans fear from 9/11 and stolen billions from them and given them shoddy protection to boot... Americans need to confiscate all this wealth and kick Bush out on his butt!!!

[file83]

18. Not only are they STEALING from us, they are ENDANGERING us....

Nice, we could have done the same thing for FREE!

[Blaze Diem]

3. Will We Soon Be Seeing THIS New MSN Poll..?

Should the accountability Office be held accountable?

-----------------------
"The agency strongly denied his accusations"..bla bla bla

You know, BushCo is the biggest damn bunch of liars in the history of makind.

I would like to see SOMEONE finally held accountable for the consistant coverups and corruptionthat's taken place under heir bush.

Makes me sick!

[truthisfreedom]

4. bush has made us less safe. bush has made us more vulnerable.

we are now at risk. we were attacked on his watch... we had natural disasters on his watch... we are suffering an unjust war on his watch... he's a terribly terribly dangerous immature man. he's destroyed our economy, and his plan is to let it completely tank just as the new Democratic President is ushered in. watch.

[radfringe]

5. geee

---snip---
In an interview, David M. Walker, the head of the G.A.O. (formerly known as the General Accounting Office), called the senior analyst "a relatively low-level, disgruntled employee" out of step with his technical peers.

amazing just how many relatively low-level, disgruntled employees there are under bush*'s misadminstration. Just about every time there is some whistle-blowing or criticism it's because the person is disgruntled...

[rodeodance]

8. its the weapon that does not work (says that in the article anyway)

[radfringe]

9. its the weapon that does not work

:evilgrin: like the pResident? :evilgrin:

[bananas]

15. "the G.A.O. (formerly known as the General Accounting Office)" ???

When was the name of the GAO changed?
Apparently it's now the "Government Accountability Office"
When did this Orwellian name change occur?

[rodeodance]

6. "raise new questions about the Boeing Company's military arm,"--the

...The dispute is unusual. Rarely in the 85-year history of the G.A.O., an investigative arm of Congress with a reputation for nonpartisan accuracy, has a dissenter emerged publicly from its ranks.

And Mr. Ghoshroy's assertions raise new questions about the Boeing Company's military arm, the main contractor for the troubled $26 billion system of interceptor rockets now being installed in Alaska and California. The system's "kill vehicles" are to zoom into space and destroy enemy warheads by force of impact.

But years of test failures have thrown the program into disarray, and the military has recently begun to look for a kill vehicle of greater reliability.

[rodeodance]

7. disgruntled employee" -- the usual lable gets attached.

.....In an interview, David M. Walker, the head of the G.A.O. (formerly known as the General Accounting Office), called the senior analyst "a relatively low-level, disgruntled employee" out of step with his technical peers.

He denied that his agency had produced a biased report and defended the rigor of its investigations. "We don't pull any punches," Mr. Walker said. "It's almost laughable for anybody to say that."

Pentagon planners hail the weapon, known as the ground-based midcourse interceptor, as a hedge against disaster. Skeptics ridicule it as an unworkable defense against a nonexistent threat.

The dispute over its reliability began a decade ago. Nira Schwartz, a senior engineer in 1995 and 1996 at the military contractor TRW, told her superiors that the company had falsified research findings meant to help kill vehicles differentiate incoming warheads from clouds of decoys.

In April 1996, Dr. Schwartz filed a suit under the False Claims Act, a federal law that allows heavy fines against contractors who lie about their government work. TRW strongly denied her accusations.

[GeorgeGist]

10. Oh the sad, revealing irony...

Compare if you will:

'The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his "great care" and "tremendous skill and patience."'

to

'In an interview, David M. Walker, the head of the G.A.O. (formerly known as the General Accounting Office), called the senior analyst "a relatively low-level, disgruntled employee" out of step with his technical peers.'

[roseBudd]

11. Because Star Wars wasn't stupid enough when Reagan proposed it

Click through to register an page view and email it to all those cheap GOP whiners.

[wordpix2]

22. Star Wars was dumb then & dumber now but * thinks it's great with the big

shield in the sky like the dick he wish he had.

:grr:

[OnyxCollie]

12. My cousin, a retired Navy commander,

now works on missile defense systems. Recently, I asked him if a missile defense system was necessary, considering our main enemy has no army, no state, and no billion dollar missile system. They managed to take down the WTC with boxcutters. He agreed, and said a suitcase bomb would likely be used before a missile attack. He also said the missile defense system doesn't work. I guess it's pretty damn hard to take two objects moving at mach II, or whatever, and have them collide.

It's just a big scam to bleed more money from the U.S.

[ContraBass Black]

16. Even more than that, when you've got one incoming warhead,

50 decoys, and 100 flares, all of which look the same, and you can only hit one with your missile defense, it doesn't really matter.

[SpiralHawk]

13. k and r -- the Republicon culture of corruption

must be exposed.


For the sake of America

[TacticalPeek]

14. K & R

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

17. It's a miracle they didn't disable Ghoshroy before he could report this

info. As it is, he's going to have to look over his shoulder for a very long time. Lotsa government and Boeing people are furious by now. From the article:

For his part, Mr. Ghoshroy said he found it "totally amazing" that the G.A.O. refused to admit that its report misinformed Congress and the public. "I'm concerned," he said, "that there's no one out there to oversee the overseer."

Long live Subrata Ghoshroy!

[elehhhhna]

19. And WHO RAN the GAO? The new Chief of Staff.

[mom cat]

21. That explains a lot.

[wordpix2]

23. no wonder the ass got promoted. * promotes everyone who's incompetent

and bleeding us dry

[struggle4progress]

20. Removing civil service protections tends to politicize agencies.

[wordpix2]

24. as I'm reading this article I'm getting more steamed--I despise these

corrupt, idiotic politicians, robber baron accomplices and their ass-licking sycophants that together are bringing this country down, selling it off & bankrupting us blind :puke: :nuke: